Month: June 2007

Hi all

Here’s another one from Patton Tuesday. Hoek and I had very sensitive slam sensors.

Hoek opens 1 (unbalanced, or 15-19 balanced) and I answer 1. Hoek now reverses with 2 and I have to make my mind up. Fourth suit force doesn’t bring me anywhere, I want to tell I have a very good suit. So I bid 3. Some cuebidding and Ace-asking later I’m in 6.

West leads a . I take some time to plan the play. Straightforward looks best. I take the Ace, and exit in , East rising with the King. I take the trump switch and ruff a , the Queen of comes crashing down and I claim an easy twelve tricks.

So East rising with the  King was a bad move and my opponents start complaining to eachother. During this verbal violence I take a deeper look into the game. I notice I should have started with a ruff, before exiting in . Then the ruff in dummy is the second entry for another ruff. And then there’s still the Ace in dummy as an entry to the developed suit.

On any other lead you have to take the double finesse in and combine it with developing the suit. Not impossible, but you’d better get your timing right.

Hi all

I wish I could start with some funny WW2 joke and general Patton, but the inspiration just isn’t there. Last night Patton at Star, I played with Hoek and René & Nira completed our team. There were lots of crazy games, about a dozen 10+ imp swings. It was not good bridge, but it was definitely entertaining.

I open 1 and Hoek answers inverted with 2. Here our current agreements stop, though we have similar ideas about bidding. I have reasonable slam aspirations and try to get that message across with 4. If Hoek had bid 4NT or 5 now, that would have been signoff, but he cooperates with a  cuebid. Yadiyadiya: 6.

West leads the 8 of . I see no reason not to take the finesse, and it loses to East’s King. He returns a for my King. Now three rounds of trumps, the remaining and a ruff complete my picture of the hands. West has shown up with 2-2 in the minors and five . So the  suit splits 4-2, now I know (based upon odds) where to look for the Queen of .

I write down +920. As it happens it was a far better slam than the 6NT they bid at the other table (minus 2). Yummie!

Hi all

I have been busy with my site a lot lately, coding and a bit of designing. I’m fed up with the sloppy code of my current WordPress template (though I really like the pictures and colours). I think later this week I’ll be able to launch the new look. For all IE users out there, symbols will be visible in all diagrams. That new piece of code I’ve already implemented, I’m curious if anybody noticed.

Your RHO opens 1. Lots of good points and some distribution, but no clear call. With a stiff it’s miles away from a takeout double. So I decide to overcall 1, LHO passes and René bids 1NT. Everybody except LHO agrees, he doubles, showing a penalty pass on . René runs to and RHO doubles. I don’t know where this is heading, but I surely don’t like it. I remove to 2, doubled by LHO, end.

West leads a trump, via the Queen for my Ace. Let’s just try to grab as many tricks as possible. Ace and King of and a ruff follow, East discarding on the 3rd round. I cross to my King of and ruff another with the Jack. East doesn’t look happy and overruffs with the King. He returns the Queen of and now West doesn’t look happy. Not wanting to ruff in the air, he discards the Ace of (nice unblocking play!).

I play a small from dummy, sad West gaining the trick with the Ten. So far I managed to score two tricks, two tricks, a top trump and a ruff. And I still have T86 in trumps left, this is all working out just fine. West is thrown in now, and gets thrown in again, because he has one more trump than I do. So finally I score all three trumps, for a doubled overtrick.

I wonder if this is one of those games where a trump lead isn’t right. I haven’t analyzed thoroughly what happens on a lead. But looking at the favourable position, I think eight tricks are always manageable.